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Erik (Phantom)
Erik Muhlheim, aka The Phantom, is one of the main characters in the franchise and is often depicted as an introverted genius with a mask. Biography The following is based on the Gaston Leroux novel where the character originally appeared. In the original novel, few details are given regarding Erik's past, although there is no shortage of hints and implications throughout the book. Erik himself laments the fact that his mother was horrified by his appearance and that his father, a master mason, never saw him. It is also revealed that "Erik" was not, in fact, his birth name, but one that was given or found "by accident", as Erik himself says in the novel. In the novel, Leroux sometimes calls him "the man's voice;" Erik also refers to himself as "The Opera Ghost," "The Angel of Music" and attends a masquerade ball as the Red Death. Most of Erik's history is revealed by a mysterious figure, known through most of the novel as The Persian, or the Daroga, who had been a local police chief in Persia and who followed Erik to Paris; some of the rest is discussed in the novel's epilogue. Erik is born in a small town outside of Rouen, France. Born hideously deformed, he is a "subject of horror" for his family and as a result, he runs away as a young boy and falls in with a band of Gypsies, making his living as an attraction in freak shows, where he is known as "e mort vivant (the living dead)." During his time with the tribe, Erik becomes a great illusionist, magician and ventriloquist. His reputation for these skills and his unearthly singing voice spreads quickly, and one day a fur trader mentions him to the Shah of Persia. The Shah orders the Persian to fetch Erik and bring him to the palace. The Shah-in-Shah commissions Erik, who proves himself a gifted architect, to construct an elaborate palace. The edifice is designed with so many trap doors and secret rooms that not even the slightest whisper could be considered private. The design itself carries sound to a myriad of hidden locations, so that one never knew who might be listening. At some point under the Shah's employment, Erik is also a political assassin, using a unique noose referred to as the Punjab Lasso. The Persian dwells on the vague horrors that existed at Mazenderan rather than going in depth into the actual circumstances involved. The Shah, pleased with Erik's work and determined that no one else should have such a palace, orders Erik blinded. Thinking that Erik could still make another palace even without his eyesight, the Shah orders Erik's execution. It is only by the intervention of the Daroga (the Persian) that Erik escapes. Erik then goes to Constantinople and is employed by its ruler, helping build certain edifices in the Yildiz-Kiosk, among other things. However, he has to leave the city for the same reason he left Mazenderan: he knows too much. He also seems to have traveled to Southeast Asia, since he claims to have learned to breathe underwater using a hollow reed from the "Tonkin pirates." By this time Erik is tired of his nomadic life and wants to "live like everybody else". For a time he works as a contractor, building "ordinary houses with ordinary bricks". He eventually bids on a contract to help with the construction of the Palais Garnier, commonly known as the Paris Opera House. In his isolation, Erik spends 20 years composing a piece entitled "Don Juan Triumphant." In one chapter after he takes Christine to his lair, she asks him to play her a piece from his masterwork. He refuses and says, "I will play you Mozart, if you like, which will only make you weep; but my Don Juan, Christine, burns." Eventually, after she has wrenched off his mask and seen his deformed face, he begins to play it. Christine says that at first it seemed to be "one great awful sob," but then became alert to its nuances and power. Upon its completion, he originally plans to go to his bed (which is a coffin) and "never wake up," but by the final chapters of the novel, Erik expresses his wish to marry Christine and live a comfortable bourgeois life after his work has been completed. He has stored a massive supply of gunpowder under the Opera, and, should she refuse his offer, plans to detonate it. When she acquiesces to his desires in order to save herself, her lover Raoul and the denizens of the Opera, he relents and allows her to leave with Raoul, content that she has let herself be kissed on the forehead once by him. Erik dies shortly thereafter, and Christine returns to the Opera to place a plain gold band he had given her on his finger. Leroux claims that a skeleton bearing such a ring was later unearthed in the Opera cellars. Appearances in other media 'The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical)' In Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 stage musical, Phantom of the Opera, Erik is only known as 'the Phantom', 'the Opera Ghost' or 'OG'. His name is never given. As in the original Leroux novel, the Phantom haunts the Paris Opera House, here known as the Opera Populaire, and takes an interest in young ballet dancer Christine Daae. When the musical begins, the Phantom has been teaching Christine to sing presumably since she was a child, and most recently through a two-sided mirror hung in her dressing room. As the lyrics suggest, Christine sees the Phantom for the first on the evening of her starring performance, and he takes her to his underground lair where he serenades her. She faints upon seeing a doll replica of herself wearing a bridal gown and wakes to see the Phantom composing at his organ. She removes his mask, causing his temper to flare, but later gives it back to him when he has calmed and she can see his distress. The audience do not see his face at this point. On the same night she is reintroduced to Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny, the new patron of the opera and her childhood sweetheart. Thus begins the love triangle which forms the main focus of the story, and the Phantom becomes increasingly jealous of the pair's rekindled affections. As in the Leroux novel, he controls the new managers and others with notes and demands that Christine be allowed to sing the starring role of the Countess in new production, Il Muto. In an act of defiance, the company refuses and stages the show with Carlotta, the inferior current diva, in the lead, and Christine as her mute lover. The Phantom interrupts the performance angrily as his seat in Box 5 has been taken and his wishes ignored. Carlotta begins to croak and is unable to finish her lines, and, after further threats, Christine gives the performance. However, as she is readying herself and the ballet dancers distract the audience, the Phantom hangs chief of the flies Joseph Buquet, distressing Christine. She and Raoul share a tender moment on the roof and concoct a plan to run away, which the Phantom overhears. In vengeance, he crashes the chandelier into the stage, and Act I ends. Act II commences six months later with a New Years Eve party and no news from the Phantom in that time. The company obviously believe him dead or gone, but he returns during the Masquerade Ball to demand they stage his opera with threats of yet more vandalism. The Phantom orders Christine to play the largest part. She initially refuses, but is coerced by Raoul and the others to sing in order to set a trap for the Phantom. The Phantom follows the torn Christine when she visits her father's grave, but is halted in his attempts to win her love by Raoul's timely arrival. He declares war upon the both of them and does indeed appear at the staging of his opera, taking the place of lead tenor Piangi by hanging him. He sings a song with Christine, but when she realises who he is she unmasks him. In a fit of rage, he takes her away once again, down to his lair. The Phantom dresses Christine in the gown seen earlier on the doll, but their imminent forced marriage is interrupted by the arrival of Raoul, attempting to rescue Christine. The Phantom, however, catches Raoul in his lassoo, and gives Christine an ultimatum - marry me and set him free, or refuse me and let him die. She cannot choose, and, in act of, presumably, desperation and pity, kisses the Phantom, whom she labels a 'pitiful creature'. She wants to show him he is not alone, and the kiss shocks him into sanity. He releases Raoul and he and Christine leave. Christine returns to give the Phantom back her engagement ring, and though he professes his love one last time, she departs in tears. The Phantom knows without her there will be no more music. He vanishes before the mob can reach him, leaving behind only his mask. 'Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)' 'Phantom of the Opera (1943 film)' 'Phantom of the Opera (1990 TV Miniseries)' 'Phantom of the Opera (2004 film)' Category:Main Characters